Vocabulary and Reading

Just read a fascinating article printed in the Atlantic on the connection between vocabulary, reading skills, and comprehension!

Here's an excerpt:

It's when we drill down to the individual family level that we see why higher-income families have such a substantial advantage in giving their kids the sorts of opportunities that really make a difference for learning. Poorer families devote the vast majority of their incomes (and, in many cases, their time) to meeting basic human needs of food and shelter. Richer families are in the fortunate position to use disposable income and time to expose their children to reading materials, conversation, and life experiences that enrich their vocabularies and teach them about the world that surrounds them.

That matters a lot. Not only does a weak vocabulary lead to poor reading comprehension, so does a lack of knowledge about basic social, economic, political, and scientific realities -- in short, "real-world" knowledge. This is different from "street smarts," which can be enormously advantageous, but which don't translate into learning advantages in school.

With respect to that general knowledge base, Daniel Willingham has explained that after young students have developed the decoding skills associated with learning to read, the difference between good readers and poor readers largely has to do with "differences in the knowledge that kids bring to the reading. It's easy to read something when you already know something about the topic. And if you don't know about the topic, it's utterly opaque to you." 

To read this article in it's entirety, click here.